The new PCG4M3R gaming pc is a little bit different to our normal gaming pc setup. For the BF3 rig we have created an “arcade” style gaming machine.

As in … we have focused on the best pixel pushing power for you dollar, and nothing else.

The whole BF3 gaming rig is shrunk wrapped around the massive ATI HD 6970, with 8GB of Corsair vengeance RAM. The motherboard, hard drive, CDROM, case , power supply are all aimed at letting the big card do its thing with out any data “bottle necks” or general overheating.

APC Magazine review of the BF3

February 2012 Vol32 No2

PCG4M3R BF3 HD PCSuper high frame rates on a modest budget.

The BF3 runs an AMD FX-4100 quad-core CPU, but those who have traditionally run an Intel CPU need not worry as the already mighty 3.6Ghz chip has been overclocked to 4.2Ghz.

To provide hardcore graphics grunt, the BF3 has a powerful Radeon 6970. You also get 8GB of 1,600MHz RAM, a 1TB HDD, DVD drive and the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Home with SP1.

This tasty hardware is housed inside a Cooler Master Elite Case, which includes a bundle of fans and a clear side window (plus some blue LEDs) to admire the goodies inside. The overclocked CPU has a Cooler Master heat-pipe cooler on it and inside, the internal cables are neatly routed and tied away. Ina move we love, a special support has been added in between the Corsair TX650 PSU and the GPU to make sure it stays put when you travel to your next LAN party.

The design goal behind the BF3 is the ability to run BF3 on the highest settings, so we put it through a battery of tests. First up we ran 3DMark 11 and while its now a bit long in the tooth, we also included 3DMark Vantage benchmarking. Why? Well not everyone has made the switch and its’ still a useful way to compare performance from home.

The BF3 pushed out an impressive score of P16,139 though more telling of the high end processing power is the P4,986 3D Mark 11 score. The Haven DX11 Benchmark cranked out a score of 1103 at 43.8fps.

You might be wondering what all this means for real world gaming, but fear not –

the BF3 lives up to its name and can run BF3 with all the settings cranked, 60+fps even in a heavy firefights and 120+ fps the rest of the time.

(we did extensive “testing”). Its safe to say the BF3 will run your latest gaming obsession with ease and will handle new releases for a long time to come.

The BF3 has plenty of connectivity options, including nine USB ports, four USB 3.0 ports (two of each on the front of the case) and the usual smattering of audio , network and fire-wire / eSATA connectors. You also get a PCI Wireless N card with the three antennas for the stable yet simple gaming connection you need.

As is the way with any high end PC the BF3 is not exactly silent. Sill it only emits the muffled murmur of power full fans until you really push the GPU hard and it cranks up the fan speed. The upside is the airflow is very good, with the fans well setup to direct cool air over your hardware and out the top and rear of the PC. It does draw 260W under load but that’s to be expected form a hardcore gaming machine.

Like all PCs from PCG4M3R, its totally customisable. Want more storage? No problem. A different GPU? Consider it done. If you happen to live in Sydney metropolitan area, you can even get free delivery.- Lindsay Handmer.